A Spatial Analysis on the Provision of Urban Public Services and Their Deficiencies: A Study of Some Selected Blocks in Khulna City, Bangladesh

Developing countries like Bangladesh is characterized by highly rated urbanization which caused many urban populations deprived from some basic public facilities. However, some basic public services are essential to keep the urban life sound. People of rural areas come to the urban areas mainly by the pull factors-that is improved level of services in the urban areas. That, in terns, makes the urban area overcrowded and the existing services become inadequate to cope up with.

2. Background & statement of the problem

As Khulna city is the regional headquarter of the south-western part of Bangladesh-people and their activity is centered in Khulna. The urban population in Khulna city is also growing due to rural-urban migration encompasses with natural growth rate (Hossain, 1999). A good transport network linked the other small urban areas as well as remote rural villages and the people of these are become frequent to urban facilities. Along these, the growing urban population creates pressure on the public services like school, play ground, health facilities, marketing facilities etc and thus disparity within the city are taken place (Jahan, 2000).

Disparity can also be seen between the planned and unplanned areas. In Khulna city, there are acute problem of parks and play ground, schools and health service facilities. The future urban growth strategy of Khulna city did not recognize the importance of additional requirements of public utilities and services (KDA, 2001). So it is the duty of planners to take account of the programmes and priorities along with resource allocation generated by the basic needs like health, education and recreation. Necessary steps should be taken to identify new locations of education, health or recreation facilities where needed according to population threshold and locational advantages which can put an impact on transportation, housing and city environment.

3. Objectives of the study

The specific objectives of the study are:

* To explore the existing public service provision in the study areas

* To identify the deficiencies of services in the study areas

4. Study area description

Among the 31 blocks of Khulna city, three blocks 16, 17 and 24 were taken for the current study. Block no 17 is semi-planned area. It has some planned areas like Sonadanga residential area. Population concentration in this block is increasing at a very high rate. Block no 24 of Khulna city have a planned residential area. This block is at the west side of the city and it was assumed that future growth of the city will be in this direction. In block no 17, road network is in irregular form, housing system is spontaneous, population density is too high than other planned areas like Nirala or Khalishpur residential area of Khulna city. These three areas can be the representative of the whole city. Public services in relatively planned areas are seems to be higher than the other areas but these are not adequate. The study areas are shown by map 1.

5. Methodology of the study

This study is solely based on secondary data. The location and number of the facilities were extracted from Khulna City Corporation and different reports conducted by Urban and Rural Planning Discipline (1999) and Khulna City Corporation. Then Location quotient analysis was done which is useful to achieve information about the relative positions of different blocks with respect to a particular facility. If spatial disparity exists among the blocks, Lorenz curve is useful to have an idea about the degree of spatial disparity with respect to various public facilities (Beyene, 2005 and Hossain, 1984). Deficiencies in public services can be identified by the determination of population threshold for facilities under consideration. There are various methods for the determination of population threshold for facilities.

Suppose, in case of parks and play ground, standard for recreational areas are to be taken into consideration (ASCE, 1986; pp 257-258). …

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